Category Archives: Astronomy

Amateur astronomer Scott Tilley made international headlines when he rediscovered NASA’s IMAGE satellite 13 years after it mysteriously disappeared. In this interview with Freethink, Scott discusses his role in the satellite’s recovery, why he enjoys amateur astronomy, and how citizen scientists like him have contributed to our knowledge of space from the space race to the present day.

This year I want to try and receive passing meteors from the Perseid meteor shower. Below a table for the coming days with direction and time to receive the meteors. Receptions is done with the help of the Graves radar that transmits on 143.050 and the signal is then reflected by passing meteors.

Table: The Perseid meteor shower 2016 – seen from The Netherlands:

Date

Best

Δt

Radiant

Meteors per hour

Sun

Moon

time

direction

Altitude

swarm

total

hight

hight

fase

9/08

3:30

-88u

NE

56°

9

25

-18°

-34°

34%

10/08

3:30

-64u

NE

56°

16

31

-19°

-32°

43%

11/08

3:30

-40u

NE

57°

29

44

-19°

-28°

53%

12/08

3:30

-16u

NE

57°

52

67

-19°

-23°

62%

13/08

3:30

8u

NE

58°

59

74

-20°

-17°

72%

14/08

3:30

32u

ENE

58°

36

50

-20°

-11°

80%

15/08

3:30

56u

ENE

59°

19

34

-20°

-4°

87%

16/08

4:30

81u

ENE

67°

9

21

-15°

-4°

94%

Last night I used a FUNcube Dongle Pro+ and SpectrumLab to listen for some signals and was successful as you can see in the below image.

When you tune your receiver in USB and listen you will hear a typical sound that is also different based on intensity.

Below an example:

The Camras WebSDR solution gives you the opportunity to receive and hear the meteors passing by.